Ghouls and goblins, witches and pumpkins, tis the season for tricks and treats! However, if you’re vegan and like a little sweet treat, you’re not in for the trick, am I right? Believe it or not, you’ve probably bought vegan Halloween candy favorites in the past! Not sure which ones it could have been? Check out these common 11 Halloween candy vegan options for your treats this Fall!
What Makes Halloween Candy Vegan?
It all comes down to the ingredients. Common non-vegan ingredients include gelatin, milk added to chocolate, and some food colorings. Let's take a deeper look at these ingredients and what candy they're typically added to.
Gelatin (gelatine)
Gelatin is a colorless, flavorless ingredient used in lots of candies like dummies, marshmallows, puddings and fruit gelatins. It’s derived from animal collagen. Some candies, like Strawberry Twizzlers for example, are naturally gelatin-free while others are made with vegan gelatin. Vegan gelatin was created by Geltor, a SF/Bay Area startup that bioengineered protein into yeast. The yeast is then fermented, creating a vegan friendly, gelatin-like compound.
Milk added to Chocolate
Chocolate has been around since the 17th century, however, milk chocolate wasn’t created until Cadbury introduced it to the market in the first commercially available product for consumption nearly two centuries later! Milk gives chocolate a smoother, more mild flavor profile. Nowadays there are vegan chocolate options made with milk alternatives, like nut milks and oat milk, which can mimic the texture/taste profile that milk adds to chocolate. Yet, we didn’t include any on this list, as they’re not a popular halloween candy option found in the average trick-or-treater’s bucket.
Food Colorings
These are added to just about any processed food to give it a certain desired look. Some food colorings are vegan, while others aren’t. This is where it gets a little tricky. Let’s take carmine for example, a red pigment, is made from cochineal (a type of scale insect). Carmine is also listed as: cochineal, crimson lake, carmine lake, natural red 4, cochineal extract, E120, or C.I. 75470. Yikes! If you’re this particular about food colorings being vegan friendly, you can view VegFAQs which has a whole page dedicated to figuring this out.
#1 Halloween Candy (Vegan): Skittles
Are Skittles vegan? Yes! The candy company manufacturer stopped using gelatin in 2010 making the candy a vegan friendly candy.
#2 Halloween Candy (Vegan): Sour Patch Kids
Holy Halloween batman! Are those sweet but sour, Sour Patch Kids vegan too? Well, I mean, if they weren’t on this list they wouldn’t be! Even the watermelons are vegan friendly, so chow down friend.
#3 Halloween Candy (Vegan): Smarties
The word on the street is that Smarties, those little powdery disks that come wrapped up are vegan, and trust your source, because they are. Pop those little sugar puffs as you please.
#4 Halloween Candy (Vegan): Swedish Fish
Are Swedish Fish vegan, too? Heck yes! Man, this list just keeps getting better and better in my opinion.
#5 Halloween Candy (Vegan): Dum-Dums
Da-diddy-dum-dum those suckers are vegan too. They’re a popular add to the trick-or-treat candy bowl and chances are if you find them at your house you can eat them too. Vegan people unite!
#6 Halloween Candy (Vegan): Jolly Ranchers
This hard candy might be a given, but Jolly Ranchers are vegan as well. We suggest unwrapping them fully before eating them and DO NOT BITE THEM - your teeth will thank us later.
#7 Halloween Candy (Vegan): Twizzlers
Are all Twizzlers vegan? Yup! There aren’t any animal products used to make them. Pick a flavor and enjoy! The real question here is if you untwist them before you eat them, just saying.
#8 Halloween Candy (Vegan): Dots
Dots are a solid go-to vegan candy all year round, and not just for the Halloween season. However, they do come in those cute little boxes of 4-6 pieces during this time of year which makes poppin’ dots just a little bit more fun.
#9 Halloween Candy (Vegan): Chick-O-Sticks
Haven’t had a Chick-O-Stick? Do yourself a favor and get one. This time of year you can usually find them in a snack-size, or if you’re looking for the full size ones, pop into a candy shop or local gas station and grab a few.
#10 Halloween Candy (Vegan): Airheads
Are airheads vegan? Yup, all flavors of regular Airheads Bars (including Airhead Xtremes) are vegan friendly. We do recommend avoiding Airheads Soft Filled Bites as they are NOT vegan due to the gelatin.
#11 Halloween Candy (Vegan): Mike and Ikes Original
Last here on the list are Mike and Ikes - are they vegan? Yes — and no. Opt for the original fruits flavored box (the green one) for a full halloween candy vegan favorites experience.
As time goes on there are plenty of vegan candy alternatives and the good news is that some of the classics are making their way into the vegan world, just like Skittles did. We hope you enjoyed our list of 11 Halloween candy vegan options and maybe they’ll make their way into your Halloween candy favorites, after all!
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